Survey on the Use and Impact of Codex Texts

The Codex Secretariat conducts a yearly survey for all Codex Members to measure the use and impact of Codex texts. Mandated to monitor this topic through the Codex Strategic Plan 2020-2025, in 2021 the Secretariat, in collaboration with FAO and WHO evaluation offices, began work on developing a mechanism to explore issues such as accessibility, relevance and credibility concerning Codex standards.

This survey, therefore, is one of the solutions to help Members and Observers better understand the impact, or potential for impact, of Codex texts.

Members are asked to respond to a series of questions on up to four standards adopted or revised by the Codex Alimentarius Commission in the period 2015-2020.

Survey launch

Materials

  • Download the 2022 factsheet (Ar, En, Fr, Ru, Sp, Zh)
  • Download the launch webinar held on 20 September 2022 (645 MB original language)
  • Download the audio only file (58 MB original language)

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    Monitoring FAQs

    The survey seeks to examine the reach and usefulness of Codex texts and use responses to calculate their impact.

    Each Member Country in Codex should answer the survey; one response per country. Codex Contact Points should coordinate how each country responds through their normal channels which could include convening the National Codex Committee or team.

    The standards selected in this first pilot are:

  • CXS 193-1995: General Standard for Contaminants and Toxins in Food and Feed (2019)
  • CXC 1-1969: General Principles of Food Hygiene (2020)
  • CXS 1-1985: General Standard for the Labelling of Prepackaged Foods (2018)
  • CXG 9-1987: General Principles for the Addition of Essential Nutrients to Foods (2015)

  • General Standard for Food Additives (CXS 192-1995)
  • Guidelines on Nutrition Labelling (CXG 2-1985)
  • Recommended Methods of Analysis and Sampling (CXS 234-1999)
  • Guidelines on Performance Criteria for Methods of Analysis for the Determination of Pesticide Residues in Food and Feed (CXG 90-2017)

    • Codex texts adopted or revised by CAC from 2015 to 2020 that cover the range of Codex General Subject Committees or Task Forces.

    The survey data will be aggregated and analysis will be conducted at the global and regional levels to determine trends. No individual country responses will be shared.

    Yes, you can just click back on the survey and change or delete your answers. While the survey remains open, you can change any of your answers. Once the survey is submitted, you will no longer be able to change your responses.

    No, there is currently no “save” option. But while compiling the survey, until it is submitted, you can go back and change a previous answer.

    You can request a pdf copy of the survey in any of the 6 UN languages by writing to [email protected].

    A country may not have data to share on all the standards listed but we hope they will answer on all those where that information is available.

    The survey seeks to gather information on specific Codex texts where a country has data. This will complement the general questions found later in the survey.

    The preliminary results are presented at the subsequent Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC), while the full report is usually available at the beginning of the next survey year.

    This is the first step in building a mechanism to monitor the use and impact of Codex Texts. Through this pilot survey, Codex will understand how to improve the process and the investment required.

    To ensure that preliminary results can be presented at CAC46, countries are urged to complete the survey by 25 October 2023.

    There are numerous text boxes provided in the survey that a country can use to provide further context to your answers including the last survey question, where a country can provide concrete suggestions to improve the reach, usefulness, or use of Codex texts. Additional, written responses can be sent to [email protected] for inclusion in the survey analysis.